Joe Garner Bags Brace At North-West Football Awards

It was double delight for PNE striker Joe Garner on Tuesday night as he scooped two awards at the star-studded NWFA ceremony.

The Preston North End frontman was voted the League One Player of the Year for 2014 before fending off competition from across the north-west to claim the Goal of the Year award for his stunning strike against
Rotherham United in the Sky Bet League One Play-Off semi-final at Deepdale.

And the striker was pleased to be bringing the accolades back to Preston.

“I am very happy to win the awards and to represent the football club in such awards,” said Garner, backstage at the event hosted by the BBC’s Dan Walker at The Point, Emirates Old Trafford.

“It is always nice to win awards and it was a really good night.

“We sit well in the league and there are a lot of games and points to play for.

“Hopefully we will get promotion this year, the gaffer is very experienced at this level and knows what it takes to get out this league with promotions at Blackpool and also Huddersfield Town, so I think we are under good management, his staff are top quality and we will work hard and hopefully get to where we want to be.

“I think we learnt a lot (in the Play-Offs), we have got some good experience in our team, a lot of people have had promotions, a lot of people have lost in the Play-Offs, and I think it serves us well.

“I think we will learn from our mistakes last year and hopefully put them right this year.”

North End’s talisman fought of some of the best players in the region to win the goal of the year prize with competition coming from YayaToure, Ross Barkley, Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez and Burnley's Ashley Barnes, a great tribute to the quality of THAT goal.

“It is a massive honour for myself and my family for me to be in the same category as them,” continued the PNE No.14.

“They are top, world class players, and the goal was obviously very nice and I was pleased when it went in.

“I was always confident about scoring goals in League One, I scored goals at Carlisle United and I was getting chances when I first came to Preston but they just weren’t going in at the time.

“I was confident the goals would come, confident in my own ability, and hopefully the goals keep coming and Preston get promoted this year.

“I am happy with my own performance at the minute, I have got 12 goals now this year and I am happy with where we are sat in the league.

“The main thing is promotion and that is what we will be judged on come May time.”

And that final point was one reiterated by Garner when asked if he had set himself a goal target for the 2014/15 season.

“I set promotion targets; hopefully we get there, but not goal targets,” stated Garner.

“It is nice to win the awards on a personal level, but I’d swap it all for promotion.”

Additional nominees on the night from Preston North End came in the form of Josh Brownhill who was nominated alongside Marcos Lopes (Manchester City), Barkley (Everton), Jordan Rossiter (Liverpool FC), James Wilson (Manchester United) and Tom Cairney (Blackburn Rovers) for the Rising Star award; a trophy won by Lopes, and physiotherapist Matt Jackson who was pipped to the Fabrice Muamba Award for Medical & Sports Science Professional by Les Parry.

Joyce Watson, Simon Farnworth and Ian Irvin were also nominated in that category.

Congratulations to Joe on winning two awards and to Josh and Matt for their nominations.

And here, once again, is the best goal scored in the north-west for 2014.